Mayhem, Boxes and Sherlock references

To say the last two weeks have been hectic would, from my point of view, be a little bit of an understatement. It started off rather slowly, mainly because a lot of the week was spent at the house. After finishing school the previous week, we had a few days to get ready for the Christmas Party which was to feature on the Friday that week. This meant the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of that week included sorting packs upon packs for the children, containing pencils, colouring pages, an item of clothing etc. All of these had to be sorted, identified and packaged up by us which took a while. During this period we also managed to make a load of props, which you will see later, for the Nativity.

Thursday we walked the 30 minute or so route to Blessed Word so we could run through the play with the children. Somehow this managed to turn into the kids jumping all over us, which was great fun, mainly because they were going after Jon more than anyone else. I may have lost the piggy back race though... not sure how that happened.

Friday was the start of the busyness – that doesn’t sound like a word but I’m going to roll with it because it isn’t red underlined. We got to BW pretty early to set up, decorating the place and all that. The place looked pretty good if I do say so myself. The day, then, went through the hectic motions of Dance offs, performances, the Nativity, Jon and Brian dressed up as Santa, food, cake and finally presents. Few it was good, but very tiring as we managed to be there for a good nine hours not tiring enough it seems, as we decided to go to LT and TGIF. That evening was... well let’s just say I feel closer to Benedict Cumberbatch then I did before. (Yes none of you are supposed to get that – but if you did :D ) We got back pretty late and went to sleep even later.

I told you that so when I say on Saturday we had to get up for 6:30 you can sympathise with us. The men had a prayer walk in the morning so we provided them with breakfast. After that (and the washing that came after it) we headed off to Chosen’s Speech Day where we cheered along our respective classes.

Sunday was a lull and a good thing too as Monday consisted of... the loft – dundundun. Basically the loft is a tiny space, in height, that was boiling. Literally we can use it as a sauna. We played ‘The floor is Lava’ (Jawwwn, the floor is lava! Jawwwn.) because we couldn’t step on the actual floor, rather the beams across it, although it was the roof that was burning. So we where there crouching and trying to move boxes without touching the floor or ceiling. Basically what I call a Great Game.

We emptied the loft, took an inventory of everything up there and put it all back up again. Sooo many boxes. On Tuesday, this continued but with a side (still big though) job of moving a load of text books out of Jacobs hut, organise them and then on Wednesday, put them back. Jon and I skipped out on the adventures of the latter, however and instead went to a faraway place to take another inventory. Basically we went to check on Smiles container and, whilst there, took nearly everything out and put it back in again. So yer, even more boxes!

 Had another long one on Thursday as Suzie and I left early with our sights set on the Post Office and, after picking up 14 packages (not including letters) stumbled to Nic’s to have a good meal before heading out again. We went to the slums to promote the Christmas party taking place the following day. Fount out after we had made it to LT that the skit we (mainly Anna) had been choreographing was going to be performed that Sunday. 

I could just describe Friday as literal Mayhem and leave it as that, but I guess I owe whoever’s reading this to actually tell them about it rather than describing it. So after we manage to get rid of Grace (cough I mean, said good bye to Grace) very early in the morning, as she headed off to South Africa, we got everything out for the party. Then we waited for the truck to come back, and waited, and then waited a bit more. I will skip the getting there, after a few U-turns because of forgotten items, and go onto the highlights.

·         Not having to get on Jon’s shoulders to hang the star this time.

·         Seeing the children dancing in the competition (especially a little girl who was adorable)

·         Having the skit go swimmingly, no hiccups (really) at all.

·         Managing to coax a kid who looked like that hadn’t eaten in a while to eat.

·         Seeing children with bulging stomachs due to lack of food eating.

·         Seeing the cutting of the cake.

·         Being swarmed trying to spray foam everywhere.

·          Going home.

The last one may seem a tad odd but we left FBC at 7:30, it had been a long day.

Saturday came as a blessed relief. We shopped locally rather than going the hour to get to the normal shopping centre, but other than I did absolutely nothing. And it was good.

LT Warriors performed the skit on the Sunday, and Anna had to step in for someone who wasn’t there. If you want to see it then the link should be up somewhere, sometime. After that though I caught up on the stuff that I should have done the day before, which apparently didn’t include this.

The following two days put a stop to the busyness (still doesn’t sound right) and I can tell you how much we did in the sole fact that I read two John Green Novels in two days. It was good.

Today will hopefully consist of more boxes as we are expecting the container to arrive... soon?

God has blessed me so much the last few weeks. He’s been there every time I felt like I was about to crack from emotional stress or over tiredness (or in most cases both). He is defiantly trying to get through to me that I can trust him in the area that I’ve always found the hardest to – money. During my time here I have been a lot less conscious of money, probably because everything’s quite cheap out here,  but with Christmas coming up, visas and internet to pay for, I’m looking at things I want to do in a ‘ahhhhhhhh I can’t afford it at all’ light. That and ‘ahhhhhh I’m going to be so broke when I get home and I still owe people money’ etc etc, you get the picture. Just as this problems been leering its ugly head again God’s been like ‘’I’ve got you.’ Yesterday I found out that my visa has been extended free of charge because Alex literally knew a guy who knew a guy that wanted to bless the work we are doing. Today I found out that I’ve been given a donation from the home front. Basically, God is Awesome.  

Thank you to everyone who has contacted me the last few weeks to offer support that I told myself I didn’t need but probably did. Seriously – Thank you.

Should probably post this now when there is still power.

It can't be almost christmas; it's 30'!

Tuesday and Wednesday where very average school days although there was a sense of urgency stemming from the cloud (that is exams) hanging over their heads. I managed to learn all (ok fine only up to Habakkuk) of the bible books in order on Tuesday because my teacher decided to have a ‘let’s say nothing but write on the board and get them to copy’ day. Oh and I ate a chilli. Mainly just for the sake of it but also because I had been given it by one of the widows the day before and wanted to see just how hot it was. It was pretty hot. Wednesday afternoon all the children had singing practice which was a good break from revision but at the same time they did have exams the following week. Anna and I decided to go to LTW again that night and had a great time trying to think up a 2^nd part to the lifehouse skit (if you haven’t watched it, look it up) which was interesting because we all agreed it had quite a definite ending.

Not much happened on Thursday, we had a nice relaxed morning before splitting to go visit families around the slum areas. We prayed with a good few families and although it was hard hearing tales of bosses not paying and lack of money for school fees etc we felt like we were helping them unburden. When the others went to LTW and Choir, Jon and I returned home and, making use of having the kitchen all to ourselves, decided to attempt chapattis (a cross between a pancake and nan bread.) Although they didn’t taste as good as the ones you get from the side of the road, they where free and pretty decent.

Friday was a strange day as we were practicing for the children’s club Christmas production. Being very hot and listening to Christmas music whilst rehearsing a play that you only normally do at church or school (but most importantly in England) is a very weird experience. I was engrossed in making Angel headbands so I only starred as the inn keepers assistant and a Sheppard who had no lines (I was awesome though, totally got into my roles.) My back stories, as every actor needs one for their characters, where that I had once been a humble sweeper before I was spotted by the inn keeper as a hard worker and offered a job as bed maker. From there I worked my way up until my master trusted me enough to start with the accounting. He took me under his wing and taught me numbers and letters as payment for my labor. The day Mary and Joseph came was my first day on the job as a fully fledged assistant. As for the character of the Sheppard that is slightly more complicated. I had been the son of a rich merchant before he had died and the business had fallen onto me to. I was his only son but he had two twin’s girls and our mother had died giving birth to them. So it was me and my sisters trying to keep the company operational on our own. An old friend of my father’s persuaded me to let him help and lulled me into a false sense of security before disbanding the operation and running off with the money. With nowhere else to turn I used to help the Sheppard’s out for the odd bit of money here and there to try and keep me and my sisters alive. I was watching a friend’s herd for them when the angels appeared.

...Sorry about that, it’s a Sunday evening and I’m a little bored. Anyhow.... later that day we went to kids club in which (if you trust my counting) we had 101 children! It is now almost a sure thing now at FBC that at least one of us will be weed on by a baby. This Friday was my turn and typically it was the one day that I forgot my change of clothes it didn’t matter though, Africa is a hot country and I soon dried off. We went to LTW after that, taught some ballet (the positions, step ball change, flick step ball change and circular spring) and actually made a start on Lifehouse P2. We joined the others next for a group called TGIF (Thank God it’s Friday) and spend the next two hours or so singing strange national anthems and being asked whether we where single. OK that makes TGIF sound really weird but it’s not, well not that much as it is a load of Uni students coming together to have fun.

Saturday morning came with exclamations of ‘guess what time it is?’ ‘It’s 10 o’clock!’ We had had a great lie in and all felt refreshed ready for the day... which consisted of doing pretty much nothing (depending on whether you count watching Miranda) until six when we went shopping. Saturday was a good day.

Sunday was, well Sunday. Did a few chores after church but mostly relaxed and apparently I came up with a back story for my characters...

Monday was rather relaxed although involved a lot of walking. We went to visit a widow that lived around an hour away which is really just a stroll apart from the fact that it was a baking hot day! We gave her the gifts which were from the school children that they didn’t manage to get to her because she was so out of the way. She was very grateful and shook our hands a good many times.

On Tuesday we had an... interesting... discussion with the teachers at school. This day and the one after we also read aloud so many badly written exam questions that we were close to despairing, especially as we saw the children put the wrong answer and where powerless to stop it. Not a nice feeling.
Wednesday for a few of us consisted of sorting out many boxes full of general shoebox items into an organized mess rather than a disorganized one.

Thursday was building. The word building, you must understand, in this context translated as ‘moving a massive pile of bricks from one position to another’. We had quite a lot of fun getting completely covered in brick dust. The Church we were helping out at is the same ‘Blessed Word’ which one of our children’s clubs are held and by the time we are finished here, God willing, they will have a roof over their head. After being fed by the pastors wife and chilling for about an hour at home, we where back out again for LTW and Choir. Anna and I continued with our interesting LH part 2 skit choreography with a bit more success. We were all knackered by the end of this and most of us slept a lot that night.

Friday was manic. After managing to design four Christmas card so that the children can have a chose we made our way to photocopy them. Getting down to the main road, however, we realized that there was no power. We headed off, leaving Moses behind to wait for power, and had to deal with around 80 odd hyper children for a while until he got there. When he did it was even more mayhem trying to hand out cards, finding crayons (after we ran around for ages as we hadn’t brought them with us) and distributing them, as well as sticking the finished ones onto the card. It was extremely tiring to say the least but Anna and I still dragged ourselves to LTW where I learned a few interesting street moves :L

My design, greatly improved by this child at FBC.

Saturday was nice and relaxed compared to the day before. Shopping, washing and getting an awesome package from my mum pretty much sums it up. Which takes us to today which has consisted of Church in the morning before coming back and doing even more washing. We have, however, just finished watching... The 50^th Anniversary of DW!!!!!!!

I won’t go into how awesome it was now, If you want to quiz me on what I liked/disliked about it give
me a shout. Believe me I would love to talk about it! There aren’t many fanatics out here.

Once again thank you for your support and Prayer, I hope you are enjoying the snow, send some over to us if you want :P

Planting the seeds

Sometimes it feels like I have been here an age (not in a bad way) and others I can’t believe it’s only been a month. Especially after speaking with my parents and seeing that not much has changed up there, it feels like I’ve only been away from home for a few days.


This last week has been quite tiring, with Monday being a day of uncertainties. We went to visit the sick at a local hospital where many poor people go because they offer free examinations. After waiting around for a long time, however, we were turned away by security, which had been heightened due to the disappearance of children from the maternity ward. We are going to try another hospital next/this week and are praying for more success. We got back to some good news, ‘the palace,’ which we have been interested in from the moment we got here, is for sale and although it is a lot of money it is a great starting point for us. We know now that the owner is willing to sell, how much it is and that it is, God willing, achievable. I spent the afternoon drawing up a plan of the building whilst Jon and Jacob ran around having a water fight.

As always, Tuesday and Wednesday where school days in which, on one, I gave one of the teachers an ultimatum, hand over the stick (which he was using on the kids) or I would have to walk out. He didn’t give me the stick but did stop hitting them which was the result had hoped for so didn’t walk out. In that and the journey the next morning God certainly showed us he was with us. Even though the path at the bottom of the hill was flooded (after a night of torrential rain), we left late and the taxi was caught in serious traffic after almost going the wrong way, we made it to school on time. To some that may not seem that impressive but considering we are trying to get the teachers to get to lesson on time, it was important to us that we did. We had another good break through with a teacher who taught the parts of a plant by actually showing them a plant.

 Thursday was a good day; we split up and went with the children from Vine school to visit the widow. Each child was ‘given’ a widow and presented them with a box full of supplies, (sugar, rice, a mat etc) and their own personal gift which they had made. It was good for them to meet people in need and by the end many where saying they wanted to do it again. After, we went further into the city then we have ever been before (dundundundundun) to buy a helmet so we can ride Boda-bodas (yay.) I had to buy a second hand one because my head is too small. Next us four girls headed over to KBC for LTWorriers and Choir. We spoke some more about the Christmas production and I remembered that I had forgotten what I had learned the week before.

We split in a different way on Friday, meaning Anna and I went to Blessed Word. Unfortunately due to the rain storm before the meeting we only had around 15 children, adorable as always though. We got a surprise at devotions when two Mzungus walked in. Kelly, a previous gapper, and her husband where in the country and wanted to catch up with what smile where doing here. It was really nice to chat with people, who where, well, English. We were all very tiered after Kids club and decided to go home for the evening.

 Saturday was cleaning time for me and Anna, whilst the others went shopping, as well as catching up on a few things we had not done in the week. After the others had come back, we got picked up by Brian and taken to his house where we finally met his wife and baby girl. There we had a fellowship meeting, hopefully the first of many to come.

Sunday was a good day, with an American preacher in the morning, making it a lot easier to follow, and a really lovely Skype conversation with my parents. The evening was awesome, consisting of my first ever Boda ride (it lasted about half an hour and was great fun) and watching Thor 2 in a westernized Cinema. It honestly felt like we were in England, especially as we were invited there by Kelly and Jono. It was great to get excited about sci-fi and be able to talk about it with people who don’t stare at me like I’m speaking a foreign language. The other girls had either not seen Thor 1, or The Avengers, or both so I had to summarize the films for them. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing Kampala at night, especially on the back of a Boda.

So now I come to today. We tried a different hospital this morning with much more success, and where able to chat and pray with some of the patients there. It is nice, but sometimes we wish that we are able to do more, to visit more or to help out more in the situations we are faced with. We are trusting in God that he will water the seeds we have planted. I always find it amusing when, in books, they use a concept all the way through to draw parallels on. If you don’t know what I mean (I probably wouldn’t just by that) I’ll give you an example. In Francine Rivers book ‘Sure as the Dawn’ throughout the book this baby is growing up, and in each stage of his development she draws the parallel between it and that of Faith. Such as, for example, when he is trying to walk, she reminds us that we need support at the beginning, to draw ourselves up on to before we can even attempt to walk on our own. Anyway, I went of there. The point I was going to make is that I really pray that the work we are going to do at the farm will parallel to what’s happening in the areas we are working. At the moment acre by acre, both physically and spiritually we are planting seeds. 

(I know this isn't Monday, we had no power most of yesterday)

BIG Post. Meaning the word 'consisting' appears a lot :)

On Monday (the 21^st – yes I know I haven’t blogged in a while) we had an awesome opportunity to visit some of the widows Smile sponsors. It was lovely as we got a warm welcome from all of them and we learned a lot about their lives. Many of them are brick makers and we where explained the process in making the bricks which was pretty cool, although it’s hard because to make, they need rain, which (even though it’s the rain season) we haven’t had much of. We only managed to visit two because there was a great distance between them and the final house we stopped off at the Lady was away. Afterward we went back to the craft market, as it was Sarah’s last week. There were some beautiful paintings but they were quite expensive. We were all knackered so crashed early, knowing as well that we had school in the morning.

School the next morning was hard as we witnessed some pretty heavy corporal punishment which left me teaching the 1/3 of my class that wasn’t involved (around 15 out of 23 were taken out.) The thought that the children started their exams the next day didn’t help our mood. We knew when we where teaching that if they didn’t understand that day, they would really struggle the next.

Exam day came and went leaving us with a very ill Anna, some hilarious but pretty poor answers on the question papers and never wanting to read out loud another badly written exam question. I lead my first devotion on that day. I have never really done this before, although I have done similar things, but I think it went well. God certainly helped.

The next day was very long, consisting of planting about a gazillion beans and listening to nearly all my music (the music player really helped, thank you muchly Floie :D.) We had a massive lunch which was probably good because half the team at this point looked like they were about to pass out. The locals where very generous and luckily nearly all of us managed to finish what was on our plates. 

Friday consisted of the team being split up between the kids clubs which meant I was stuck with Jon, I mean, had the pleasure of going with Jon (cough.) We didn’t have much to do as the kids were colouring, but it was good fun trying to hand out pens fairly with a mob of children surrounding you trying to get to them. I also led ‘Making Melodies,’ which must have been a sight. The theme was ‘Jesus loves the children’ which was cute as was helping the little kids colour. Me and Jon where unhurried in our return journey and tried an interesting ‘shortcut.’ When we got back, although were really tiered, we managed to watch Pocahontas which Jon didn’t like it and kept calling it ‘hocus pocus.’ 

It was shopping day on Saturday, but we really wanted to go to the post office as many of us new there should be some post there. I got a lovely package full of Chi Tea from my mum and dad. (Thank you muchly.) I will remind you of my address again at the end of this blog and I’ll put it on my main profile, not at all to encourage you to write me letters... Suzie made us probably the most English meal we have had since being here – Pancakes! They were very scrummy. One great success, for me personally, that day was getting Jon to watch Community. For those of you don’t know, and who are interested, Community is an awesome show with an unfortunately small fan base. This means, of cores, that I need to get everybody into it.

We had a nice welcome at KBC in the morning as it was ‘Family Bible Study,’ the juice and donut style buns were just a bonus. We learned during the sermon that KBC was known to some as Mzungu Church, which amused me greatly as it probably does hold the largest amount of white people we have seen. As it was Sarah’s last Sunday, and second to last day, we headed off to a restaurant afterwards to give her a good send off. Now we were told this place was called ‘Nando's’ but not wanting to get our hopes up we dubbed it Ugando’s and tried not to think of decent spicy chicken. It was kind of a good thing we didn’t because the place we went to could not be called ‘Nando's’ by anyone with an English passport. It was good though, the chicken in the burger being the first we had tasted in close to a month and the chips actually being fatty. My personal highlight was the strawberry ice cream me and Sarah enjoyed afterwards. (How we had gone 4 weeks in a very hot country without and ice cream I will never know.)

Then it came, the day that had been at the back of our minds that we couldn’t quite face or believe, the day Sarah left us. This time, when we went out to visit the widows, we focused on the slum areas so we gained are normal following of adorable kids as we made our way from house to house. One woman we visited had HIV and AIDs meaning she was feeling very ill but blessed us with standing and having a photograph with us. 

Another was at her stall where she sold watermelons but wasn’t selling that day because she was under the weather. Despite this she greeted us warmly and actually served us some of the watermelon that she would have been selling. Watermelon, I have found, is even more refreshing then water itself.

The next widow was doing well, but it was really strange to see a large number of people living in such a small space. She told us how the three leveled bunk bed was such a blessing as it gave them more room.

Before going back, Anna and I took a detour to KBC where we spoke at length with the leader of a group called LT Warriors, a dance club (very street based,) choreography for their Christmas production the main subject. In true Ugandan style, Sarah had her last meal in the darkness that can only be cause by a power cut. After some hugs and tears she drove away to the backing track of ‘See you Mzungu!’ and ‘bye Mzungu!’

And then there were 5.

*Insert some Geeky Leaving quote, that most won’t understand so there’s no point in trying to think of one, here*

Tuesday was strange, waking up, finding an empty bed and not having to wonder if we should wake up Sarah because it was getting late. We went to school in a strange fashion, pointing at every dog, and even the pig (Jefferson), and saying ‘Rabies!’ because Sarah wasn’t there to do it for us. We reached the school where I taught a ‘prepared’ lesson on tenses (we have been doing tenses for the past two weeks so I had quite a few things up my sleeve) and proceeded to join Jon’s class. This was mainly because P3 where being taught Luganda but also because observing can be boring, especially when you are doing it for 4 out of 5 lessons a day. I taught him BSL alphabet which we used to converse with the rest of the lesson. To be fair to us the teacher was just copying from the book to the black board and the kids where copying from that into their books – fun times. 

Wednesday consisted of several breakthroughs in this area. One was a teacher who we had almost labelled ‘lost cause’ actually interacting with the children, another was me politely taking a stick of a teacher and the lesson only leaving three children hurt. The finally one was when a teacher left for a short while only to come back with some leaves to teach science with! That was the first time we had seen it happen and, hopefully, won’t be the last. The only drawback was that in my final lesson no teacher showed up... all lesson.

We had Cute Overload on Thursday as we set of into the slums equipped with loads of clothing and school equipment. It was such a joy, not only clothing these tiny children that had previously been wearing nothing at all, but to know that what we were doing actually made a difference and that God can work through it.

 

We trotted off to KBC afterwards because Grace and Suzie where joining the choir and Anna and I wanted to take a look at the LT Warriors in action. We ended up, of cores, joining in the street dance and although it was great fun we realised just how white we where – It is impossible for us Just to move our hips and we thought it was the same for everyone.

1 month in.

TGIF is what a lot of us where thinking as it had been a long week but we had a nice relaxed morning before splitting and going to the children’s club once more.  You would never guess who I got stuck with, again. We had swapped places but not people so Jon and I headed down to Blessed Word of Life church and where met with more adorable kids than normal. There we recapped ‘Mary and the Angel’ with craft to start the Christmas lead up (the children’s clubs Christmas parties are late November early December as it coincides with the end of term.)

Shopping, shopping and more shopping is how I would describe Saturday as that is what we did most of the day. First of though we went to the post office and I received a lovely letter from my Sister, which may or may not have made me cry... and a package from my mum.

And here we are, Sunday, the day of the Sun (or what I would like to say – the day of the Son.) I have just witnessed my first proper eclipse and have had a good morning at Church. We are hoping the power continues so we can catch Ugandan X factor on the box (as my dad would say.)  

 

Here’s the reminder of my address:

Kathryn Sweetlove

PO Box 5895

Kampala

Uganda

East Africa

I love getting post as it makes me feel like I’m not so far away from those that I love.

In my blog I have mentioned giving out clothing etc if you feel like you would want to contribute to this you are welcome to send things to the address above or through Smile International. Either way I assure you it will get to those in need. We also, at some point would like to bless the children in the slums with bracelets, so if you have some old ones (plastic, fabric, glass – whatever) feel free to send some over. We will take pictures and you can see a child’s face light up because of your gift.

Prayer requests:

·         Rain. We are in much need for rain at the farm, it is the rainy season yet we have had zilch for a long time now.

·         Health. Personally, I have been under the weather for a few days now and would like to go half an hour without sneezing. Another ‘Gapper’ (Anna) is on penicillin for infected throat and bites. Another two members of the team have colds, one we suspect has malaria. If you could also pray for the widow’s health as one is suffering from Aids, and another from flu.

·         Decision Making. One of the ‘Gappers’ has been struggling with the option of extending her gap year. If you could pray for peace or a clear decision for her.

Thank you for your continuing support, if you have any questions about anything I have done, will do or could do you can comment below, ask me on face book or drop me an email at cupcake2nd@hotmail.co.uk.

Wow that was a long post :D

KJ